Between – The PM Consultants, LLC dba Creative Boro, a TN limited liability company (“us,” “we,” or “our”) – and the client customer (“you” or “your”).

Summary

We will always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your goals, but sometimes it’s best to have a few things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and what happens if stuff goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. We do want what’s best for the safety of both parties, now and in the future.

In short

You are hiring us to design and develop a website for the estimated total price as outlined in our proposal. Also, you will have an ongoing monthly services fee payable to us for the items outlined in our proposal. Of course, it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.

What Do Both Parties Agree To Do?

YouAs our customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organization. You agree to provide us with everything that we’ll need to complete the project – including text, images and other information – ideally when we need it and in the format we ask for. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways and you’ll also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.

UsWe have the experience and ability to perform the services you need from us and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavor to meet all the deadlines set but we can’t be responsible for a missed launch date or a deadline if you have been late in supplying materials or have not approved or signed off our work on-time at any stage. On top of this we’ll also maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.

Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty

DesignAs we are designing your website, we’ll create designs for the look-and-feel, layout and functionality of your website. This contract includes one main design plus the opportunity for you to make up to two rounds of revisions. If you’re not happy with the designs at this stage, you will pay us in full for all of the work that we have produced until that point and you may either cancel this contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at an agreed upon rate.

CompatibilityYour project will include HTML markup and CSS. The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back. With that in mind we will test all our markup and CSS in current versions of all major desktop and mobile browsers available to us. Users of older or less capable browsers or devices will experience a design that is appropriate to the capabilities of their software. We do not cater for people using Microsoft Internet Explorer and Safari for Windows, as we cannot predict their behavior since they are no longer supported by their creators. MS Edge is the Windows web browser currently supported by Microsoft. We will also test that these templates perform well on Apple’s iPad. We will not test old or abandoned browsers, for example Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, previous versions of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Opera unless otherwise specified.

Text ContentWe may have written a hundred blog posts but we’re not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy on your website unless we specified it in the original estimate. If you find that you need some help with text content, we’ll be happy to help set you up with a content plan or help you find the right person through our referral network.

PhotographsYou will supply us photographs in digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, that is fine, but we can suggest providers of free stock photography too.

CopyrightsYou guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in the website are either owned by your good selves, or that you have permission to use them. If that’s not the case, you agree to indemnify us for any claims that these elements violate someone else’s copyright.

Copyright is automatically transferred to you when we receive your final payment, and at that time, you will own the graphics and other visual elements that we create for you for this project.

We’ll give you a copy of all files and you should store them really safely as we are not required to keep them or provide any native source files we used to make them.

You also own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them. We love to show off our work and share what we have learned with other people, so we reserve the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project on websites, in magazine articles and in books about web design. This may include use of your logo and name. We also reserve the right to use the base framework of the website as a starting place for another site. We will not use any of your text, images, or information of any kind.

Changes and RevisionsThe estimate/quotation prices at the beginning of this document are based on the amount of work we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve. If you do want to change your mind, add extra pages or templates or even add new functionality, that won’t be a problem. However, you will be charged accordingly and these additional costs will need to be agreed to before the extra work commences. This additional work will affect deadlines and they will be moved accordingly. We’ll be up front about all of this if and when it happens to make sure we’re all on the same page before proceeding. We may also ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes. If the nature or functions of the project change significantly throughout the process, we reserve the right to deem the current project cancelled. At this point you will pay us in full for all the work we have done and may commission us to complete the new project based on the new requirements. This will require a new quote and contract.

Non-Responsive Client

If after 30 Days of no response by you “the client”, then we will assume and consider the project as accepted and finished. In work going forward will require new payment terms. No refunds/discounts/credits shall be given. We promise to be responsive and available throughout the process and expect the same from our clients.

Technical SupportPlease understand that while we do service your account for the hard working folks that manage the daily maintenance and upkeep of your server, we do not physically manage the servers on which your website will be hosted. We will make every attempt to find a solution for server related issues for your website and email as they arise. However, it may take a couple days on more complicated matters as there is potential for us to need to contact our server guys and gals.

Payment Schedule

Here is your payment schedule:

Website Design Upfront Payment

100% of website cost is due before work begins, unless otherwise agreed up. Agreement terms will be stated in first invoice

Website Design Monthly Contract

Contract is for 12 months on the chosen option

After 12 months, then it will automatically stop billing for this amount.

Cancellation at anytime during the 12 months will require payment of the remaining months.

Hosting

Month-to-month service fee

Client may choose to cancel at anytime

Client understands and agrees that account and anything hosted on our servers will be deleted

Note: If you are unable to supply all of the right content at this stage, it does not mean we have not done our job. Once the site has been tested and is ready to go live, either with your content or placeholder images and dummy text, we will issue the final invoice. Once the final invoice is paid we will start into the maintenance phase. If the final invoice is not paid within the credit terms we have given you, we are under no obligation to keep the site on our testing server or continue with the project in anyway.

But where’s all the horrible small print? Here you go:

Legal stuff

We can’t guarantee that the functions contained in any web page templates or in a completed website will always be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential, or special damages arisingout of the operation of or inability to operate your website and any other web pages, even if you have advised us of the possibilities of such damages. You agree that our liability under this agreement will never exceed the total amount paid to us over the six month period preceding the claim for which you claim damages.

Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract will stay in place as we are working on your project or hosting your website and does not need to be renewed unless there is a gap in service for more than 90 days, in which case we will consider any new work to be under a new agreement.. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts and the part that doesn’t work will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining parts. Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Rutherford County, TN. You agree that any dispute will be governed under the laws of the State of Tennessee without regard to any choice of law.

Phew!

FAQ

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSWhat is information architecture?Information architecture is the relationship of how all the different pages of a website relate to each other. This relationship is communicated visually through a sitemap.

What is an interactive prototype?An interactive prototype is a black and white version of your website that is designed to prove the functionality and features as they will work in the browser. No design elements are applied at this stage as the prototype is just built to allow all parties to make final decisions on the functionality.

Why do you use WordPress?WordPress is open source content management software and currently powers around 25% of all websites on the Internet. The WordPress project is contributed to by tens of thousands of developers all over the world and is growing from strength to strength. WordPress allows us to develop flexible and customizable websites to modern standards and observes web development best practices. Furthermore the community of web developers that use WordPress reaches far and wide and allows us to tap into this collective intelligence and bring that wealth of experience to your project.

Where is the website hosted?Your website will be hosted within servers provided by our hosting partner unless otherwise agreed upon. We provide high quality hosting that includes SSL, Updates, Security, Email, Domain, all in your own easy to use account.

Who do I call if something goes wrong with the website or I can’t figure something out?Provided you subscribe to one of our ongoing website care plans, we will be your first point of contact should something go wrong with your website. We will determine whether it is something our hosting partner needs to fix that is covered by your website care plan. We will provide training and video tutorials to assist you in using your website once it is launched.

What happens after the website is launched?Once your website is launched, we will provide 30 days of support to make sure any bugs have been ironed out and that you are confident using your new website. After this you will need to subscribe to one of our ongoing website care plans to make sure your website is looked after and maintained. These website care plans include updating your software, regular backups, security checks and making sure your website is online and open for business 24/7/365. More information on our website care plans is available upon request.

How long will it take to appear at the top of Google?Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages (including people who actually work for Google), however there are a number of factors that can improve your chances. It depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Building your website on WordPress is a good start as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimization fundamentals built-in. Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical to increase your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise.

We are happy to talk to more about your search engine strategy if we haven’t already.

How will I know if anyone is visiting my website?We will install Google analytics software on your new website and show you how to log into your Google analytics account where you can see a wide range of statistics about your website including number of visits, page views than the amount of time people are spending on your website.

What happens if I want to add some features to the website while you’re building it?While we like to be flexible and responsive to your needs, we also like to deliver what we promise within the time frames and budgets we have allowed. If you ask us to add new features to your website while we are building it, will most likely ask why? If we all agree that your new request will help us achieve your objectives that we initially agreed upon, then we will be more than happy to oblige. If your new feature idea is something you would like to add to your website but is not directly tied to your original objectives then we will suggest scheduling it for a second iteration once the website launched. We kindly ask that all requests are in writing via email. This will likely require a new proposal and additional costs.

Curious how your business appears online?

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